A request to rezone an 800-acre land parcel for a data center in Montour County, central Pennsylvania, has been denied by local authorities.

On February 10, the commissioners of Montour County voted unanimously to deny an application filed by independent power producer Talen Energy.

If the application was successful, a property owned by Talen Energy would have been rezoned from agricultural to industrial, paving the way for the construction of a data center and a power station.

Opposition to the proposed data center has been fierce ever since Talen submitted its rezoning application last August, and a Facebook group titled ‘Concerned Citizens of Montour County’ has amassed 2,300 followers at the time of writing.

Most of the concerns about the campus are related to its environmental impact, as well as the manner in which the application was approved by authorities.

Environmental associations also expressed worry that any data center or power facility could have severe impacts on the adjacent Montour Preserve.

Montour County is not a data center hotspot, and most of Pennsylvania’s data centers are located in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Talen began developing data centers back in 2021. Through its data center subsidiary Cumulus Data, it broke ground on a hyperscale facility and a separate cryptomine facility in 2023.

The power producer is best known for its attempt to sign a behind-the-meter deal with AWS to power a data center directly from the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which was denied by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last year following opposition from utilities.